Thayer School News

With the first semester's work satisfactorily completed and the Outing Club's Silver Anniversary Winter Carnival a pleasant memory, the second semester work can enjoy the unstinted concentration of the March doldrums. This semester six of the second-year men are conducting researches, three in the soil mechanics laboratory instituted last year and three in the setting up and calibration of apparatus for a new highway materials testing laboratory. This latter work will equip the School for the testing of bituminous materials in conjunction with the recitation course conducted in highway engineering.

Meetings of alumni were held in January in New York and Boston. At the annual meeting of the Thayer Society of Engineers in New York, attended by thirty-seven members, the following elections were recorded: To the executive committee: John S. Macdonald '14, P. L. Thompson '09, F. H. Munkelt '09, John W. Guppy '24, and G. G. Kisevalter Jr. '31. To the advisory board: C. F. Chase '89, S. E. Junkins, D. C. '87, and G. A. Sampson '03. Those attending this meeting were: C. F. Conn, C. S. D. '87, O. E. Hovey '89, W. N. Hazen '90, E. J. Morrison '93, G. J. Mclndoe '96, P. H. Winchester '00, T. T. Whittier '00, G. H. Nolan '00, E. H. Sprague '01, F. E. Cudworth '02, F. B. Marsh '02, W. F. Rugg '02, J. E. Porter '03, A. V. Ruggles '03, G. A. Sampson '03, A. C. Tozzer '03, W. A. Conley '06, C. F. Goodrich '06, S. C. Bartlett '08, S. F. Garvin '08, F. H. Munkelt '09, P. L. Thompson '09, H. A. Ward 'to, N. L. Doe '13, J. S. Macdonald '14, A. P. Richmond '15, E. H. Elkins '15, J. W. Guppy '24, D. M. Brown '25, J. O. Martin '26, E. S. Cole '31, G. E. Franson '31, G. G. Kisevalter '31, G. E. Simpson '31, E. A. Coakley '33, E. D. Fisher '33, B. 0. McCoy '34, and Dean F. W. Garran. he meeting was informal, and following dinner a letter was read to the society from "Bobby" Fletcher, and a discussion of the aims and progress of the School, led by Dean Garran, was entered into with interest and enthusiasm by all those present.

The meeting in Boston was held at the University Club on January 21, with eighteen men present. The guest speaker for the evening was Professor George Owen of the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at M. X. T. He spoke on "The Sailing Boat." The meeting was arranged by Charles Main 'OB, and Phil Rising '30, with the following men in attendance: W. F. Mann, C. S. D. '90, A. W. French '92, C. R. Main 'OB, Harold Parker 'OB, H. T. Pierce 'OB, J. H. Goldman '25, R. P. Johnson '31, G. W. Roberts 31, P. D. Rising '30, G. A. Hawkins '32, O. S. Hobbs '32, J. M. Scanlon '34, Dean Fi W. Garran, and Dean Carl S. Eli of Northeastern University.

At the first meeting of the executive committee in New York, Jack Macdonald '14 was elected president, John Guppy '24 secretary, and Phil Thompson 'O9 was reelected treasurer of the Society. There have been two subsequent meetings of this committee for the organization of the Robert Fletcher Fund campaign, and about the time this appears in print you will receive a folder from them explaining the particular importance of the collections to be solicited this season. The committee, realizing the vital significance of the Robert Fletcher Fund to the School, has put considerable thought and effort into the organization of this year's campaign, and has expressed its confidence in the support which may be expected from the alumni.

Jack Macdonald, in addition to his duties as president of the Thayer Society, is engaged at present in the installation of the huge bronze valves for the twenty-mile tunnel of the New York Board of Water Supply. The completion of this work in June will mark the close of the $42,000,000 project executed entirely by P. McGovern, Inc., of which Jack is vice-president and chief engineer.

An interesting example of the versatility of Thayer men was received recently in the form of a paper entitled "The Chinese Chimes," H. W. Robinson '11, pretending editor, North China American School, T'unghsien, Peiping, China.

Both the Thayer Society executive committee and the Alumni Fund committee of the College have asked me to explain that their funds are entirely separate. A contribution to the Robert Fletcher Fund cannot therefore be credited to the College's Tucker Fund, nor can a contribution to the Tucker Fund be credited to Thayer School's Robert Fletcher Fund.